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Alice Cooper

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Judge: Alice Cooper, you have been accused of mass mental cruelty. How do you plead? Alice: Guilty!

— The intro of "Lock Me Up" from Raise Your Fist And Yell

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A heavy metal/hard rock artist from Detroit, Michigan, Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948) was originally the frontman of a band called Alice Cooper. However, with the release of his first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, in 1975, Furnier started to use the name of the band as his stage name. He has since legally changed his name to this. The split was entirely amicable, probably because Furnier pays royalties to his former bandmates for the right to use the name.

Cooper's career started in 1964, when his band was named The Spiders. In 1969, they renamed themselves Alice Cooper and released their debut album, Pretties for You. Their first major breakthrough was in 1971 with the release of the song "I'm Eighteen" on the album Love it to Death. The song was followed up with what is considered Cooper's Signature Song, "School's Out" in 1972. In 1973, they released their most commercially successful album, Billion Dollar Babies, which reached #1 in both the US and UK. Their next album, Muscle of Love, was less successful, but still reached #10 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. This was the last album recorded by the original Alice Cooper band, which afterwards, as mentioned before, Furnier took the name Alice Cooper and released Welcome to My Nightmare.

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Cooper's career spans 45 years with 26 albums, and is often cited as one of the most influential performers in the hard rock genre. Bob Dylan even commented in a 1978 interview that he thought "Alice Cooper is an overlooked songwriter". Cooper's stage shows are known for their shock value and vaudevillian influences, of which Groucho Marx and Mae West were both fans. Starting in 2004, he began hosting a Detroit-based radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper.

From the Darker and EdgierBrutal Planet and Dragontown albums, we have "Take It Like a Woman" and "Every Woman Has a Name", respectively. While we're at it, they both also contain something of a Downer Ending and Broken Bird.

He also played a hotel piano player in Sextette, Mae West's notoriously dreadful final film. Keith Moon and Ringo Starr made similar appearances; according to Alice, all three of them only did it so they could say they'd been in a film with Mae West.

Plays a bartender in Suck, a Canadian-made rock and roll vampire road movie.

Plays a crazy homeless person in Prince of Darkness, who kills a man with a broken bicycle.

As Himself in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and The Garbage Strike", when Monk, tormented by the smell of garbage piling up in San Francisco, gives a summation in which he theorizes that Cooper murdered the Victim of the Week due to jealousy over a particular type of chair that the victim owned.

Car Fu: "Under My Wheels" is about a man murdering his wife by running her over.

Chair Reveal: The music video "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" ends with the son telling his hidden father that he didn't understand the film he went to see (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives). The dad's chair spins around, revealing that he was actually Alice Cooper all along, and he offers to explain it to him.

That also happens at the end of the concert film, "Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper", with Alice being revealed as the therapist the director was telling his troubles to.

Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "The Congregation", the defrocked priests and telemarketers are kept in Hell's "eternal mariachi room".

He has said his goal is to last as long as Mick Jagger, who is five years older than him.

Cosy Catastrophe: The song "Last Man On Earth" is about a guy who wakes up one morning to find that he's, well, the last man on earth. And instead of being depressed about it, he proceeds to sing about why it's awesome.

I can't go to school cos I ain't got a gun I ain't got a gun cos I ain't got a job I ain't got job cos I can't go to school So I'm lookin for a girl with a gun and a job And a house, with cable! Don't you know where you are?

Early Installment Weirdness: The band's first two albums, Pretties for You and Easy Action, were very psychedelic-sounding, influenced by Frank Zappa and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Alice hadn't developed his vocal style yet, either, and the albums rely mainly on instrumentals and Word Salad Lyrics.

Epic Rocking: "Halo of Flies". According to Alice himself, the song was written to prove that the band could perform long progressive suites

Freudian Excuse: Defied in "Wicked Young Man", where the narrator explains that movies, music and video games didn't corrupt him and being evil is just his nature.

Gender-Blender Name: But of course. He once described a trip to the bank where he was asked his name and gave "Alice Cooper." The teller said "I have about six Alice Coopers here, which one are you?" His response? "I'm the one whose account says mister Alice Cooper."

Hair Metal: Went in this direction from 1986 to 1991 with "Constrictor", "Raise Your Fist and Yell", "Trash" and "Hey Stoopid"

Hell-Bent for Leather: While Alice had worn leather before he took it to new heights when returned to the music industry in 1986 wearing a studded leather jacket with a leather shirt, leather gloves, leather pants and leather boots.

Hospital Hottie: "Nurse Rosetta", from the point of view of the priest fantasizing about her.

Ill Boy: As a child, Alice had severe asthma and other health problems, and nearly died of a burst appendix at age 12. One of the reasons his family moved to Phoenix was the hope that the warmer climate would improve his health. And it did improve as he got older.

Intercourse with You: Many songs, perhaps most blatantly "I'm Your Gun". There's also "Feed My Frankenstein", which includes the line "Let me drink the wine from your fur tea cup."

Kids Rock: Several repetitions of the chorus in "School's Out" features kids singing along.

"Department of Youth" from Welcome to My Nightmare.

Last Note Nightmare: "Wind-Up Toy" ("You have to go now, it's bedtime") and the white noise freakout at the end of the album Killer, which represents Alice being killed in the electric chair, which is also featured in the stage show.

"The Man Behind The Mask," written for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, is the most cheery, uplifting song you'll ever hear about a deformed guy in a hockey mask who murders teenagers, though the original demo version of the song(which eventually became "Trick Bag") is more suitably dark.

Madwoman in the Attic: "Former Lee Warmer" is sung from the perspective of a man who keeps his mute and apparently insane brother locked up in his attic.

Meaningful Name: He chose from a book which listed of the most calm, inoffensive first and last names - number one on each were Alice and Cooper.

Since his albums frequently combine satire, more light-hearted humor, and both comically and genuinely dark themes, this is frequent. A good example is "When Hell Comes Home" from Welcome 2 My Nightmare—a heavy, creepy, completely serious song in which the narrator plans to kill his abusive father sandwiched between a love song to a corpse and a song featuring Ke$ha portraying the devil.

Just about any of his "serious" ballads ("Only Women Bleed", "I Never Cry", etc.) are musically and often lyrically quite different from the rest of the album that they appear on.

VERY common lyrically on the Darker and EdgierBrutal Planet and Dragontown albums, as they focus on "real-world" issues far more than usual, alternating between dark but somewhat humorous satire and pure, well, brutality.

"Man of the Year" from The Eyes of Alice Cooper. The narrator spends the entire song talking about how great he is, then in the bridge suddenly reveals that despite this, he's incredibly lonely and depressed and then proceeds to kill himself. For the final verse he reverts to talking about how great the funeral was and how he bets God can't wait to meet him. Played for Laughs, obviously.

Moral Guardians: "Sex, Death and Money" depicts a hypocritical moral guardian who goes to all the filthy, depraved shows and then complains about them.

I was so offended as I sat for three hours It was mental cruelty, I was so shocked Just a little more flesh just a little more blood A little closer to the edge a little deeper in the mud I'll never be the same

Alice seems to love this trope. The original Alice Cooper band was mainly straightforward hard rock, but when Alice went solo he adopted a more sophisticated sound that included strings, horns, disco influences, a love ballad as well as keeping the hard rock edge which ultimately made an album more friendly for the masses. Alice kept this style until the aforementioned New WaveFlush the Fashion before jumping into a more modern 80s sound a few years later which got progressively commercial sounding, culminating in the glam rock album Trash. After two more albums in roughly the same style he switched to heavy, detuned Industrial Metal for two albums, then came full circle and went back to straight forward rock. The Alice Cooper band also did this, with their first two albums featuring long psychedelic influenced songs before Bob Ezrin came onboard and got them writing the shorter hard rock tunes they became famous for.

Odd Friendship: He befriended Groucho Marx of all people. Whilst they took it in different directions both men had vaudeville leanings that the other appreciated.

Off with His Head!: The oldest and most frequent method of Alice being executed at the climax of his concerts. He also did it in his appearance on The Gong Show.

Older Than They Look: He's in his seventies but doesn't look all that different from how he did in the 90's.

Pie in the Face: On one of VH1's countdown lists of the craziest concert moments, a fan hits him in the face with a cream pie while he's crouched down on the stage during a dramatic moment. He just rolls with it, wiping the filling off his face and licking his finger. In the accompanying interview he says that afterwards it occurred to him that it wasn't a smart thing to do, since he didn't know what the pie might be laced with. It turned out all right though.

Power Ballad: "Hell Is Living Without You", "Only My Heart Talkin", "Burning Our Bed", "Die For You", and "Might As Well Be On Mars"

Sanity Slippage Song: Many of his songs. "Steven" is one examples. "From the Inside" is a whole album of insanity songs.

Religious Horror: The concept albums Go to Hell and The Last Temptation. Also Brutal Planet and especiallyDragontown.

Royal Rapier: Wields one (which belonged to Errol Flynn) during concerts. It usually has money skewered on it during "Billion Dollar Babies" and is occasionally used to decapitate a baby at the end of the song.

Self-Deprecation: The commercial break outros for Nights with Alice Cooper crack a lot of jokes at Alice's expense. "You're listening to a man whose first album was called a tragic waste of plastic..."

I ain't got a name I don't gotta face No fingerprints or DNA I ain't got no eyes I don't got a tongue But I know what's going on I'm deaf and dumb I'm pure non-entity Don't even look for me I watch you when you sleep

Stalker with a Crush: "This Maniac's in Love With You!" is about a stalker talking about his crush to a psychologist, who gives the verdict that there is "nothing more than I can do."

Transformation Sequence: While Alice usually comes onstage already in-character, in a few tours he started the show as Alice Cooper (the performer) and partway through became the evil Alice Cooper (the character) in a transformation sequence, which usually involved the melodies from "Steven" being played while a nurse or doctor forcibly applied his greasepaint.

Used to Be a Sweet Kid: From "No More Mr. Nice Guy" - "I used to be such a sweet sweet thing till they got a hold of me..."

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